creators_name: Sandler, Sergeiy creators_id: sergeiys@gmail.com type: journalp datestamp: 2011-09-17 17:43:57 lastmod: 2011-09-17 17:43:57 metadata_visibility: no_search title: Reenactment: An embodied cognition approach to meaning and linguistic content ispublished: inpress subjects: ling-prag subjects: ling-sem subjects: phil-lang full_text_status: public keywords: action; cognitive linguistics; dialogue; embodied cognition; meaning; simulation note: Pre-proofs. Last-minute changes to list of references are possible. abstract: A central finding in experimental research identified with Embodied Cognition (EC) is that understanding actions involves their embodied simulation, i.e. executing some processes involved in performing these actions. Extending these findings, I argue that reenactment – the overt embodied simulation of actions and practices, including especially communicative actions and practices, within utterances – makes it possible to forge an integrated EC-based account of linguistic meaning. In particular, I argue: (a) that remote entities can be referred to by reenacting actions performed with them; (b) that the use of grammatical constructions can be conceived of as the reenactment of linguistic action routines; (c) that complex enunciational structures (reported speech, irony, etc.) involve a separate level of reenactment, on which characters are presented as interacting with one another within the utterance; (d) that the segmentation of long utterances into shorter units involves the reenactment of brief audience interventions between units; and (e) that the overall meaning of an utterance can be stated in reenactment terms. 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